Amazon's "Distance Assistant" Looks Like the Circle That Sun Wukong Drew for Tang Seng.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has been in turmoil and has been repeatedly sued by employees for inadequate safety measures. To this end, Amazon has launched an AI distance assistant to remind everyone to keep their distance in real time.
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic in the United States, Amazon has repeatedly been hit by negative news due to inadequate safety protection measures.
Surrounded by negative news, Amazon is probably getting anxious. On Wednesday, Amazon’s official blog announced:Launched a new AI tool “Distance Assistant” to help employees maintain social distance.
Is it hard to keep your distance? Draw a circle to protect you
Amazon's AI "distance assistant" is not very complicated.
It consists of a 50-inch display, depth sensors, a camera that supports AI algorithms, and a local computer.Ability to track employee movements and provide real-time feedback on social distancing.
As people pass by the camera, the camera tracks how close people are to each other, and the display shows live video with visual overlays in real time. It looks like this:
The video shows people walking in augmented reality circles.
Green circle:If a person is six feet (about 1.8 meters) away from others, the circle will remain green;
Red circle:If people are closer than six feet, the circle will turn red and flash, reminding employees to keep their distance.
Green circle on the right: safe distance, keep it
Because the devices are self-contained, it means they can be quickly deployed and moved wherever they are needed.
Amazon likens its "Distance Assistant" system to radar speed-check systems, which provide drivers with instant driving feedback.
Brad Porter, vice president of Amazon Robotics, said in a blog post that the "distance assistant" has been tested in some of the company's buildings.Employees reported that the assistant’s instant prompts were effective.So, based on this positive feedback,The company plans to complete hundreds of deployments in the coming weeks.
Importantly,Amazon also said it would open source the technology.This enables other companies to quickly replicate and deploy these devices in multiple locations, helping companies ensure the safety of their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amazon is not the first to launch a distance warning product
Amazon isn't the only company developing this type of AI distance assistant.
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, a large number of companies providing AI video analysis and surveillance have developed similar social distancing tools.
Google has previously developed an AR social distance reminder tool called "Sodar".Visit the website https://sodar.withgoogle.com/ and a virtual ring with a radius of two meters will be displayed on the phone screen. If the distance with others is less than two meters, the user will receive a notification.
There is also Andrew Ng’s company LandingAI, which developed a tool in April Social Distancing Detector,To remind people to maintain social distance (seeAndrew Ng's company released a social distance warning tool).
In addition, some startups have also turned to physical solutions, such as using wristbands and pendants to sense nearby distances through Bluetooth signals, and then alert workers through buzzing or beeping if they violate social distancing guidelines.
But these technologies quickly raised privacy concerns.
Some privacy experts worry that such solutions will generate detailed data on workers’ movements throughout the day, giving managers more leverage over their employees, while leaving workers with little recourse to keep their jobs.
In 2018, Amazon applied for a wristband patent.The wristband can track workers' movements in real time.Not only can they be instructed on the tasks they should perform next, but they can also be instructed on whether they have taken the wrong box. This move caused great dissatisfaction among people at the time, as they believed that this seriously monitored the behavior of employees.
However, for this social assistant,Amazon emphasizes that it is localized to make it clear that it does not store any data about the workers' movement.However, the media has not yet been responded to whether the information will be stored and what information will be retained.
But then again, it's quite difficult for companies. They are sued for not monitoring social distance, and are questioned about privacy issues for using tools to remind people to maintain social distance.
References:
https://blog.aboutamazon.com/operations/amazon-introduces-distance-assistant
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